Process of treating leather



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

OTTO GEISLER, OF GLOVERSVILLE, NE\V YORK.

PROCESS OF TREATING LEATHER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 549,193, dated November 5, 1895.

Application filed April 11, 1895. Serial No- 545,362. (No specimens.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, OTTO GEISLER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Gloversville, in the county of Fulton and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Processes of Treating Leather, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to the treatment of leathers which are required to be soft and elastic or stretchy, such as those used for the manufacture of gloves.

My object is to provide a hating material, which will remove the lime and clean the skins for the tanning process, so that the flexibility and elasticity required for gloves shall be secured and the skins be made to receive the coloring material perfectly without streaking or spotting. ject hy the use of sour whey as the hating material, the curd and fatty substances being removed therefrom, and the result is that the lime is not only completely removed, but the skins cleaned from other substances, which would interfere with the tanning process and the subsequent coloring.

Heretofore great difficulty has been found in the hating of leather, the lime or other material making the leather hard, and while many attempts have been made to remove the hardness of the leather and make it flexible and soft by the use of many hating compounds all, so far as I am aware, have been more or less objectionable and of doubtful efliciency.

I accomplish this ob-' I have discovered that the leather may he made soft and pliable by subjecting the skins, after the ordinary liming process, to a hating process, which consists in the use of a bath of lactic acid, using sour whey as the particular material, which is worked into the skins by the use of a drum or paddle-wheel, two to three gallons of the whey being used to one hundred sheep-skins, this quantity varying according to the size and thickness of ,the

skins. The length of time for the immersion and working of the skins will depend entirely upon the character and condition of the skins being treated and the strength of the whey. The skins are then again worked and washed and the ordinary treatment continued.

What I claim is- 1. The process of hating glove leathers consisting in subjecting the same, after the liming treatment to the action of sour whey, sub stantially as described. I

2. The process of treating glove leathers consisting in subjecting the skins to the liming action; working and washing the same; immersing and working said skins in a bath of sour whey and washing and working the skins again, substantially as described.

In-testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

EDGAR A. SPENcEE, NIcHoLAs M. BANKER. 

